Having to wait untill 500 posts for a Avatar is extremely excessive IMO.

I can't argue with the massive forum participation herin though. But that is likely because we are all fan boys. Not because the excessive posts needed to be treated as a upstanding member. Maybe consider lowering that to 250 posts or so. Would be better.

And while I'm at it. What's up with the member rank naming? Sort of obscure yes? Does it have some double meaning or some mind F technique? Because again, and being a forum owner myself, I can't argue with the results.

And while I'm at it. What's up with the member rank naming? Sort of obscure yes? Does it have some double meaning or some mind F technique? Because again, and being a forum owner myself, I can't argue with the results.

Two things occur to me, reading your post. The first is that no, I, personally, don't think that setting a quota of 500 posts in order to obtain an avatar is excessive, extremely so or otherwise.

And my second observation is really agreeing with what mobilehaathi wrote; to use expressions such as 'extremely excessive' indicates exceptionally very strong feelings about a topic. 500 posts? The right to post an avatar? I'm not sure that this topic merits an outpouring of such………intense emotions. Hyperbole, yes, actually, indeed, I do think such a post probably merits this description.

But, anyway. You'll get there, and reach the figure of the fabled 500, never fear.

Two things occur to me, reading your post. The first is that no, I, personally, don't think that setting a quota of 500 posts in order to obtain an avatar is excessive, extremely so or otherwise.

And my second observation is really agreeing with what mobilehaathi wrote; to use expressions such as 'extremely excessive' indicates exceptionally very strong feelings about a topic. 500 posts? The right to post an avatar? I'm not sure that this topic merits an outpouring of such………intense emotions. Hyperbole, yes, actually, indeed, I do think it probably merits this description.

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Lol I guess I should of left off the word extremely so you guys would have nothing to focus on. I honestly did not give it much thought. For now on I will only use one adjective. But if we are mixing words here I would say it fits. Most forums are 20 posts or max 100. So here it's a 500% increase. That would warrent extremely. I think it is you who should calm down. No need to get defensive over posts count. Again I was only making conversation. Definitely not stepping on toes.

500 is an arbitrary cutoff. As far as I know the number has never changed in the history of the site. But in one sense the avatar requirement has been lowered over time, simply because the opportunities for participation in discussions are much more numerous than in the past.

There were about 1520 new forum threads in the month that I joined MacRumors in 2002. In comparison, last month there were about 17300 new forum threads, i.e., over 10 times as many discussions going on at any given time. It's much easier for almost anyone to find conversations of interest. The 500-post requirement used to represent years of participation for most forum members, and now it sometimes represents only months of participation. Avatars identify the most active users, who once numbered in the dozens, and then in the hundreds. Now thousands of users have avatars and people earn them faster than before.

Meanwhile, all users can give themselves a profile picture that will appear on their user page.

I think the requirement for 500 posts was best said by Doctor Q, one of the administrators

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No harm done. But I am not comparing 500 posts to my post rate. I am comparing it to other forums. So again, excessive. But again, the rules here seem to work very well. I have never seen a forum with higher activity. So again, not arguing with success, just making an observation. Agree to disagree. I don't wish to argue any longer. It mentally tireing for me. I learned this lesson long ago in forums. I momentarily forgot my way lol. No more confrontational words from me. Back to love for apple only.

I don't feel it's "extremely excessive", though I would like to see that limit reduce a bit.

An avatar is part of an online identity and many users don't feel "accepted" without a full identity, and acceptance brings with it a willingness to participate. These forums are a type of family and some users don't feel accepted into the family until their identity is also accepted.

Due to the hard work put forth by our moderators/administrators, a spammer isn't going to survive 50 posts, much less 250 - I report bad posts every chance I get.

I also feel that requiring a high post count in order to add an avatar encourages "trash posts" (posts that contribute nothing to the conversation) in order to attain the post limit.

I would like to see the avatar post count requirement brought down to 250 - similar to the requirement for the Market Place.

I'm curious, when was this 500 post count requirement implemented? From the beginning, or after many of you already had your avatars? I feel that we need to hear from more people who haven't yet reached 500 posts. It's easy to say "just be patient" after one has already obtained one's benefits.

Doctor Q's explanation was good. He basically said, in this case, forum activity is directly related to post count cut offs. Where other slower forums makes sense for a 20 post cut off this forum 500 post cut off makes sense because of its overwhelming activity. In which case I would be forced tend to agree.

Staff Member

An avatar is part of an online identity and many users don't feel "accepted" without a full identity, and acceptance brings with it a willingness to participate. These forums are a type of family and some users don't feel accepted into the family until their identity is also accepted.

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Please expound on this point a bit more and cite some examples where you or others w/o an avatar are being treated differently then members with avatars.

I'm fairly active in the forum, not just as a moderator but as a member and to be honest, I've not seen a continual or habitual issue where members are treated different because they do not have a picture under their user name.

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Due to the hard work put forth by our moderators/administrators, a spammer isn't going to survive 50 posts, much less 250 - I report bad posts every chance I get.

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Avatars and the restrictions of such have nothing to do with spammers, but rather encouraging members to participate and rewarding those who do.

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I also feel that requiring a high post count in order to add an avatar encourages "trash posts" (posts that contribute nothing to the conversation) in order to attain the post limit.

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That is always a risk, and when the moderation team see's such posting habits, we deal with them in accordance to our guidelines and rules. To be honest this is not a major issue.

I'm not sure why the lack of an Avatar makes one feel inadequate in some way? I also find the titles a good way to see how active forum members are.
I propose we leave it as it is.

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It does me. I am quite attached to my avatar. Goes hand in hand with my username. In the end it's no biggy, as said I'll be there in one month. But these cut offs serve two purposes. One spam prevention, and two forum participation. In which case the high number only serves to promote forum participation if that. Because no spammer in their right mind will stick around for 500 post much less be able to fake their way too it.

Please expound on this point a bit more and cite some examples where you or others w/o an avatar are being treated differently then members with avatars.

I'm fairly active in the forum, not just as a moderator but as a member and to be honest, I've not seen a continual or habitual issue where members are treated different because they do not have a picture under their user name.

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I didn't say people are treated differently, though I do feel that you didn't grasp what I actually posted. I said some users don't feel that they are part of a family until their identity is accepted, and an avatar is a large part of an online identity. I use the same username and avatar everywhere and many others follow the same pattern.

Having a user feel accepted would contribute to further participation more than having a user feel they need to work harder (more posts) in order to gain acceptance.

Staff Member

I didn't say people are treated differently, though I do feel that you didn't grasp what I actually posted. I said some users don't feel that they are part of a family until their identity is accepted, and an avatar is a large part of an online identity.

Having a user feel accepted would contribute to further participation more than having a user feel they need to work harder (more posts) in order to gain acceptance.

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Fair enough, though you can point me to some examples where this is occurring.

Actually, believe it or not, while I don't doubt that there are people who seem to feel that their online identity is not complete in the absence of an avatar, on this forum, there are quite a few long standing members (with quite high post ranks and titles) who have never uploaded an avatar, nor ever felt the need to do so.

In my case, I didn't upload one for a few years after I had acquired the magic letter 'a' which would have allowed me to do so. Indeed, I only seriously began to give it consideration when I got involved in a number of the 'MRville' online games, at a time in my life when I actually had some spare time on my hands.

I can't argue with the massive forum participation herin though. But that is likely because we are all fan boys. Not because the excessive posts needed to be treated as a upstanding member. Maybe consider lowering that to 250 posts or so. Would be better.

And while I'm at it. What's up with the member rank naming? Sort of obscure yes? Does it have some double meaning or some mind F technique? Because again, and being a forum owner myself, I can't argue with the results.

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Look at it this way....

Before I had an avatar, people actually had to read my posts before they realized they were wasting their time reading my annoying junk.

Now, all they have to do is see my avatar and they know immediately to skip my posts!

OK...semi-seriously....you are part of the "community" as soon as you start posting. If your posts are interesting, informative, humorous, and helpful...folks will remember your username and read your posts...even without the avatar.

Maybe it's silly, but one has to be here a while to have the choice of having an avatar or not...and I, for one, don't have a big problem with that, nor do I think the 500 posts are excessive...extremely or in any other way.

I wonder what the added weight to the servers would be if EVERYONE that joined the forum got an avatar right away?
I have been a member since 2009 and have yet to hit that 500 mark (last time I checked I was pretty close though). The lack of an avatar hasn't made my stay here any less enjoyable.

I also feel that requiring a high post count in order to add an avatar encourages "trash posts" (posts that contribute nothing to the conversation) in order to attain the post limit.

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Sometimes that happens. Usually a member will go on a posting spree for a day or many days, posting upwards of 50 posts per day or more where most of those posts are "fluff" posts or add very little value to a discussion. That's called over posting and is a violation of the rules in most cases.

When you see a member over posting, report them and the moderation team will review the case and take appropriate action.

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Overposting. Making the same post many times, making multiple pointless posts in the same thread, making numerous posts with no real content, or posting for the purpose of gaining a higher post count.

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